3 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 24)

4. Keeping The Crap From The Attitude Era

Next up, it was time for a segment - not a match or an interview, a sketch. Needless to say, we weren't off to the best of starts. The premise here was that Carmella took James Ellsworth shopping to get some new clothes, and believe me when I say this was horrible.

The "humor" was bad enough, but since we're talking about Vince McMahon here, it's not funny if it's not offensive. The clerk who ran the clothing store was exhibiting just about every stereotypically gay mannerism on record, as if the entire segment were written by a homophobic eight-year-old - which, hey, maybe it was. They also felt compelled to throw in a bit during a fashion montage where Ellsworth dressed up as The Godfather, one of the most offensive gimmicks in company history.

It's not surprising that people at WWE think these sorts of things are okay, it's just a little surprising that they continue in an era when the company tries to get good press for anti-bullying and similar efforts. Or maybe I'm just naive, and shouldn't be surprised at all.